Bengaluru: The India Art Festival (IAF) – a contemporary art fair hosted annually in New Delhi & Mumbai since 2011 is presenting its debut edition in association with Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath from 05 to 08 May 2022 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath Art Complex, Kumara Krupa Road.
The Art Festival will be starting with VIP preview on 05 May 2022 from 1.00pm to 8.30pm for invitees and it will be open for public from 06 to 08 May 2022 from 11.00 am to 8.00 pm daily.
Entry to the Art Festival is free. Around 25 art galleries are showcasing 100 master artists artworks along with 300 mid-career and emerging artists, showcasing 3000 works of art displayed through 80 booths.
Since 2011, the twenty editions of India Art Festival mounted at New Delhi and Mumbai annually established the popularity of India Art Festival as a mixed art fair module wherein art galleries as well as independent artists are invited to exhibit under one roof. This democratic structure of art fair with art galleries & independent artists pavilion under one roof saw phenomenal ‘growth in scale, quality, and expansion’ in the last decade.
In this season, the festival is spreading their mission of ‘democratising ‘art viewing and buying’ to India’s Silicon Valley ‘Bengaluru’ from 05 to 08 May 2022 at a picturesque & historical Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath Art Complex, Kumara Krupa Road.
India Art Festival gives artists an opportunity to expose their art to several different kinds of audiences and build their network and assess their potential markets. On the other hand, art buyers and art collectors too prefer annual art fairs to search for works of arts they like from thousands of quality artworks available under one roof, instead of exhaustive weekend hopping around city’s art spaces. It also gives an opportunity to non-participating artists to interact with those who are displaying their works. India Art Festival Director, Rajendra says “every year thousands of new artists come out of art schools in the country, but they seldom get art galleries to represent them immediately. Today’s millennials look for ‘artworks’ which they can acquire to create inspiring ambience around their living spaces; many major and mid-level art galleries also look for art fairs in the metro-cities to reach out to the wider art buyer base. Today’s art buyers are working rich who look for ‘one-stop art shop’ with thousands of art choices under one roof; India Art Festival fulfills the needs of both artists and art buyers.”
Rajendra Further adds, “all these factors together made India Art Festival expand its base from Mumbai to Delhi and now to Bengaluru in the last twelve years. India Art Festival has successfully expanded the periphery of art patronage and art choice presented to the art buyers. The young talent teeming with the unbridled form of creativity brings refreshing and new radical visual art voices to the art festival from rural as well as urban India.”This year, 100 master and established artists represented by various art galleries from Mumbai, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Singapore, Noida, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Agartala can be seen at the art festival presenting an outstanding panorama of the Indian art. Apart from art galleries, hundreds of independent artists hailing from various places from Tamil Nadu to Jammu and Tripura to Gujarat are showcasing their artworks first time after two years of pandemic at Bengaluru. The independent artists include mid-career, established as well as young rising stars of tomorrow.
The specialty of the first edition at Bengaluru is the Gallery pavilion that sees the participation from art galleries and stunning artworks by master artists represented by various galleries. Art Festival Director Rajendra confirms “This is an overwhelming response from the galleries to the India Art Festival at Bengaluru even though it is a first edition in the city”. Informing us further, he tells about the participation by overseas gallery Gnani Arts from Singapore along with galleries from different parts of India.
The art works by ten artists represented by Gnani Arts from Singapore display a mix of figurative and enhancing styles in vibrancy of colour while some are seen displaying unique works. The paintings and sculptures of P Gnana , lingering on the figurative-abstraction idiom exudes the universal emotion of love.The veteran art gallery from Bengaluru Galerie Sara Arakkal is showcasing master as well as young artists from Bengaluru which include works of master painter Yusuf Arakkal, C.F. John, Azis.T.M, Venugopal EK, Chandranath Acharya, Gita Hudson, Praveen Kumar, Rani Rekha and others. The other two galleries from Bengaluru – Charvi Art Gallery and H Art Gallery are also exhibiting master artists that includes S G Vasudev, P Suresh, G Subramanian, Suhas Roy, Sunil Das, Laxman Aelay, Devraj Dakoji, S A Vimalanathan, Anilakumar Govindappa and others. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath is showcasing works of few senior artists Prof M J kamalakshi, V R Chandrashaka, A Ramakrishnappa, B Y Vinoda, Rama Sharma and Tharakeshwari T V apart from their master collection.
Gallerie Splash and Easel Stories from New Delhi and Noida respectively have been regulars at the India Art Festival; at the first edition in Bengaluru they have brought in the array of art works by master and veteran artists along with new and upcoming artists. The artworks by master artists Manu Parekh, Ashok Bhowmick, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Gurmeeet Marwah, Lalbahadur Singh, Nagesh Ghodke and Roy K John exhibited by Galerie Splash are presented first time in the city. Easel Stories is showcasing the eclectic mix of artworks by senior artists A. Viswam, Arpan Bhowmik, Bikash Poddar, Jyotirmoy Ash, Sandeep Chhatraband, Shuvankar Maitra and Vikash Kalra. Mumbai based Studio3 gallery is presenting an assortment of landscapes, religious and spiritual art, portraiture in figurative and semi abstractions by Bharti-Prajapati, Gurudas Shenoy, JMS Mani, Vinita-Karim and others.
The master artists whose museum-quality works will be displayed include Jogen Chowdhury, Jatin Das, Krishen Khanna, Lalu Prasad Shaw, S G Vasudev, Manu Parekh, Neeraj Goswami, Jayshree Burman, Sudhir Patwardhan, Jatin Das, Sakti Burman, Laxma Goud, Seema Kohli, Ashok Bhowmick, Vasudev SG, Yusuf Arakkal, Paresh Maity, T Vaikuntam, P Gnana, Laxman Aelay, Niladri Paul, Gurudas Shenoy, Ramesh Gorjala, M Narayan, HR Das and 100 other established names.
Participating Art Galleries:
Bengaluru : Charvi Art Gallery , Dhera Art Studio, Galerie Sara Arakkal, Huespikes, H Art Gallery
New Delhi & NCR:Art Lune, Easel Stories, Eminent Art Gallery, Gallerie Splash, Gallery Pioneer, ICM, Kalasrotam, Sudha Art Creations, Uchaan
Mumbai: Art Melange, ArtDesh Foundation, Artvista, Dolna the Movement, House of Emerge, Mriya Arts, Studio P Bawdekar, Studio3 Art Gallery,The Bombay Art Society
Other Cities: Gnani Arts – Singapore, Kalabhawan – Agartala, M Narayan Studio- Pune, Sneha Arts- Hyderabad